A friend, having heard a talk I gave at the UU Church in Eureka Springs, gave me this set of Frank Lloyd Wright Nature Pattern Blocks. As I've described before, Frank Lloyd Wright became an architect having grown up with the blocks invented by Froebel. His mother had attended the 1876 World's Fair in Philadelphia at which a Kindergarten classroom had the following effect described by Nina C. Vandewalker in her book The Kindergarten in American Education, 1908:"The Exposition kindergarten was conducted in an annex to the Woman's Pavilion, by Miss Ruth Burritt of Wisconsin, who had had several years of experience as a primary teacher before she became a kindergartner, and whose manner and insight were such as to gain adherents for the new cause. The enclosure for visitors was always crowded, many of the on-lookers being "hewers of wood and drawers of water, who were attracted by the sweet singing and were spellbound by the lovely spectacle." Thousands thronged to see the new educational departure, and many remained hours afterwards to ask questions."Wright's mother was among those mesmerized and inspired. The Kindergarten method of learning is not to be confined to the early years. We all learn best through play, and as Wright noted in his later years, "I can still feel those maple blocks in my hands to this day."
I do not believe these blocks are currently available. They should be.
Make, fix and create...
We sell http://www.kevaplanks.com/ to schools and they seem to be quite pleased with them.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why we can just collect the refuse wood from constructions sites. prepare it to dimension and to remove splinters, and accomplish the goal?
Kim,
ReplyDeleteI've not known about Keva blocks. Thanks for the introduction. Kids have been building in similar fashion for generations. Construction waste can be a great source of block material. For Keva, the key would be the uniformity of material. For building stable structures like the kids build on the Keva website would require uniform dimensions, and that may be a bit of a challenge if block sets are made of irregular materials in a piecemeal fashion... but not impossible.
Jenga blocks are often used to build things beyond the way things are usually stacked and any kind of block will be used in similar ways.
Hou can also Google "KAPLA US".
ReplyDeleteSylvain
Making regular blocks is feasible even with hand tools: https://paulsellers.com/2018/08/thickness-planing-is-great-hand-planing-skill/
ReplyDeleteBut it would not be fun to make hundreds of those small pieces. Although one could make a few each day for some weeks.
Sylvain